22 INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. 



Felling, the Potticary, says is good for her cold." But 

 that it still must have continued "rare, is veiy evident, as 

 in 1664, it is recorded that the East India Company made 

 the king what was then considered " a brilliant present 

 of 2 Ibs. of Tea, costing forty shillings," and two years 

 later another present of 22 Ibs., both parcels being pur- 

 chased on the Continent for the purpose. 



It was not until 1668 that the East India Company is 

 credited with the direct importation of Tea into England, 

 which, although chartered in 1600, for the first time con- 

 sidered Tea worthy their attention as an article of trade. 

 The order sent to their agents in that year was : " for 

 100 Ibs. of the best Tey they could procure to the 

 amount of ^25 sterling." Their instructions must, how- 

 ever, have been considerably exceeded, as the quantity 

 received was 4,713 Ibs., a supply which seems to have 

 " glutted the market " for several years after. Up to this 

 time no alarm had been excited that the use of Tea was 

 putting in peril the stalwarthood of the British race. 

 But in the very year of this large importation we find 

 Saville writing to his uncle Coventry, in sharp reproof 

 of certain friends of his " who call for Tea, instead of 

 pipes and wine," stigmatizing its use as "a base, un- 

 worthy Indian practice," and adding, with an audible 

 sigh, " the truth is, all nations are getting so wicked as 

 to have some of those filthy customs." Whether from 

 sympathy of the public with these indignant reprehen- 

 sions or other causes, the whole recorded imports for the 

 six following years amounted to only 410 Ibs., the quan- 

 tities imported continuing small and consisting exclus- 

 ively of the finer sorts for several years thereafter. 



The first considerable shipment of tea reached London 

 about 1695, from which year the imports steadily and 

 rapidly increased until the end of the seventeenth cen- 



